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208 ascending with him the difficult path that had opened before him, and at length stood with him on the summit, in the full light of his power and renown.

She was born Martha Dandridge, in May, 1732, and was descended from an ancient family that migrated to the colony of Virginia. Her education was only a domestic one such as was given to women in those days when there were few "female seminaries" and private teachers were generally employed. Her beauty and fascinating manners, with her amiable qualities of character, gained her distinction among all those belles who were accustomed to gather at Williamsburg, at that time the seat of the government.

When but seventeen, Miss Dandridge was married to Colonel Daniel Parke Custis, of New Kent County, where she was born. Their residence, called "The White House," was on the banks of the Pamunkey River) where Colonel Custis became a highly successful planter. None of the children of this marriage survived the mother; Martha, who arrived at womanhood, died at Mount Vernon in 1770, and John died of fever contracted during the siege of Yorktown eleven years later.

Mrs. Custis was early left a widow, in the full bloom of beauty and "splendidly endowed with worldly benefits." As sole executrix she managed with great ability the extensive landed and pecuniary business of the estate. Surrounded by the advantages of fortune and position, and possessing such charms of person, it may well be believed that suitors for her hand were many and pressing.

"It was in 1758," says her biographer, "that an officer, attired in military undress, and attended by a body servant, tall and militaire as his chief, crossed the ferry called William's over the Pamunkey, a branch of the York River. On the boat touching the southern or New Kent side, the soldier's progress was arrested by one of those personages who give the beau